GreenTech Metals has launched a 1500m diamond drill campaign at its Osborne joint venture (JV) project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, just as a trio of mining heavyweights have sunk their teeth into a notable neighbour.
With nearby Azure Minerals attracting significant recent investment from Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources and Chilean mining giant Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM), GreenTech’s share price jump today may not come as such a big surprise.
After closing at 54.5 cents on Friday, the company’s stock rose to an intraday high of 70c today – an increase of more than 28 per cent and on its biggest volumes since July.
GreenTech has been anxious to start drilling since previous sampling at its operation delivered impressive figures including one assay showing results of up to 3.63 per cent lithium oxide. X-ray diffraction analysis also confirmed the presence of spodumene-bearing pegmatites at Osborne and at the company’s adjoining Kobe operation.
Management says the southern lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite zone sits within the Osborne JV tenements and comprises a total combined 4km of strike.
The Northern LCT pegmatite trend, which includes GreenTech’s initial Kobe discovery, lies within the company’s wholly-owned Ruth Well tenure and extends eastward into the Osborne JV it shares with Artemis Resources. Recent rock-chip sampling returned a suite of high-grade assay results peaking at 1.8 per cent lithium oxide.
With the completion of an initial heritage survey, additional drill sites at both the Southern and Northern trends are expected to be available with the next four to six weeks.
Greentech Metals executive director Tom Reddicliffe said: “In light of the recent $1.6B takeover offer for Azure, the West Pilbara is continuing to cement its position as one of the premier global jurisdictions for hard rock lithium exploration. GreenTech is moving quickly with its exploration programs as it continues to reveal the true potential of its significant tenure in the region.”
The company’s projects sit tantalisingly close to Azure’s impressive Andover lithium discovery, where a ground-breaking 209m high-grade lithium hit averaging 1.42 per cent lithium oxide was recently revealed.
Azure has been making headlines recently and revealed last Friday that lithium giant MinRes had bought 55.8 million of its shares, or 12.3 per cent of the stock.
It came just a week after Rinehart’s private company bought an 18.3 per cent stake. That high-profile move had followed South American lithium leader SQM’s takeover negotiation priced at $3.52 per share – valuing Azure at $1.6 billion.
Just last month, GreenTech revealed it had identified nine broad lithium soil anomalous zones across its West Pilbara licence package, which covers a total area of 32 square kilometres and has more than 60sq km that are still to be mapped. Mapping and recent soil and chip sample results have confirmed the discovery of new occurrences of lithium-bearing pegmatites in the Wally, Osborne and Maddox Zones, which correlate well with several other lithium soil anomalies and regional structures.
With interest in Azure raging – particularly from some of the industry’s biggest names – the market will also be keen to see the results of GreenTech’s maiden Osborne drill campaign to see if it can replicate the impressive results at Andover.
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By Michael Philipps
